“As Shi Min explained earlier, the ‘Eye’ does not tolerate deceitful hearts. It reads intentions with perfect clarity, as easily as we read scrolls, piercing through every pretense, every hidden motive, every lie we tell ourselves about our own purity. There is no deception possible within its gaze.
When you step inside, your hearts must remain absolutely pure — crystalline in their clarity, transparent in their honesty. Your sole intention must be what it should be: to be granted a cultivation technique, to grow stronger for righteous purposes, to serve your clan and protect those weaker than yourselves. If you enter with greed, with desire to harm others, with corruption in your heart, the ‘Eye’ will know. And it will judge you accordingly.
This is actually our most excellent protection against the enemies who have infiltrated the trials — they cannot hide their malice from the ‘Eye’s perception, and that will be their downfall.”
Li Shenwu’s Reminder
Li Shenwu stroked his beard with the satisfied air of soone about to deliver wisdom earned over centuries of experience, his voice booming across the hall, enough to make the lantern flas flicker.
“Hm, that is correct. And now for a practical matter that has claid more lives than any enemy within the trials — do not be reckless and end up trapped inside when the ‘Eye’ closes. Rember to co out before the ‘Eye’ seals itself on the third day! This is not negotiable, not optional, not sothing you can push for ‘just a little longer.’ Whether you are granted a cultivation technique or not, whether you are in the middle of a breakthrough or on the verge of discovering a legendary art, you must co out.
The ‘Eye’ opens for three days and then closes for four years. If you are inside when it closes, you will be trapped in that space between worlds for the entire duration. Four years without proper food, without seeing the sun, without human contact beyond whatever other fools got themselves trapped. So go mad. So die. So erge so changed they are no longer recognizably human.”
He snorted with the particular combination of exasperation and amusent that only cos from watching soone you care about do sothing monuntally stupid and sohow survive it, his tone perfectly balanced between disdain and humor.
“In fact, I knew soone personally who was trapped there for two years — and she is sitting at this very table!” His eyes glead with mischief as he gestured dramatically toward Ling Li.
Ling Li flushed, color rising in her cheeks as decades of carefully maintained dignity threatened to crumble under familial teasing. “Great-great-grandpa, do you have to ntion it? In front of everyone?” Her voice carried both genuine embarrassnt and reluctant affection for the ancient cultivator who could still make her feel like a scolded child.
Shi Min chuckled, clearly enjoying his mother’s discomfort in the way only a son can. “Mom, since Seven-great-grandpa has already revealed your secret, why don’t you share with everyone the full story of how you were trapped inside the ‘Eye’ for two years? I’m sure the disciples would benefit from hearing about your... extended cultivation retreat.” His tone was respectful but edged with playful mockery.
Ling Li glared at her son with a look that promised retribution later, but the damage was done. Four Eyes leaned forward with obvious curiosity, his eyes widening with interest, and suddenly the entire hall was leaning in, eager to hear a story their usually composed matriarch clearly didn’t want to tell. The tension that had built during the warnings broke slightly, replaced by very human curiosity about their leader’s past misadventure.
Ling Li’s Tale
With resignation written across her face, Ling Li exhaled slowly, accepting the inevitable. If the story was going to be told, better she control the narrative than let rumors and speculation fill in the gaps.
“Alright, I’ll tell you, though I’m not particularly proud of the foolishness that led to my predicant.” Ling Li’s voice carried both resignation and a hint of wry humor at her younger self’s recklessness. “When I entered the ‘Dragon’s Eye’ during my generation’s opening, I was ambitious — perhaps too ambitious. I pushed deep into the white miasma, deeper than most dare to venture, driven by determination to prove myself worthy of the Li na. There, in chambers that few had reached before , I was gifted the rare ‘Daoless Heaven technique’.” She paused, letting them absorb the significance.
“For those unfamiliar, this technique overrides all elents, all natural laws of cultivation. It renders divine weapons powerless, nullifies skills regardless of their grade, and can even temporarily suppress an opponent’s cultivation base by negating the ‘Dao’ itself — the fundantal principles that allow cultivation to function. It is a technique that makes the impossible possible, that allows the weak to challenge the strong, that turns the hierarchy of the cultivation world on its head. Naturally, this made a target.”
Gasps filled the hall, the sound rippling through the assembled crowd like a wave. Disciples sat wide-eyed, many of them having never heard the whole story of their matriarch’s legendary technique, suddenly understanding why she commanded such respect despite rarely displaying her full power.
Even the elders who had heard versions of this tale before seed breathless, caught up in the retelling. ‘The Daoless Heaven’ technique was the stuff of legends, a cultivation thod that appeared in ancient texts but that most believed had been lost to ti. To learn that their own matriarch possessed it, that it could be obtained within the ‘Eye’, sent calculations racing through every mind present.
Ling Li continued after letting the revelation sink in, her voice steady now, the embarrassnt replaced by the gravity of mory, of events that had shaped who she beca.
“I was ambushed by a group of cultivators who could not push deeper into the white miasma themselves but who recognized the technique I had been granted. Earlier, as I pressed further into the miasma, I had sensed their presence, lingering on the periphery like vultures waiting for their mont to strike. It was my own ambition, my refusal to heed the warnings in the whispers of the wind, that led there, unprotected and alone. They sought to steal it, to kill , and sohow extract the knowledge from my corpse or force to teach them before my death.
In defending myself — and I killed three of them before the others fled — I was driven to the edge of a cliff. The ground crumbled beneath , and I fell. My cultivation at that ti was not high enough to fly, barely sufficient to slow my descent enough that the landing didn’t kill outright. I found myself in the depths of the ‘Eye’ that are not ant to be accessible, areas that exist outside the standard trial structure.
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